Since the early 1950s, Latin American TV broadcasters presented their audiences with fiction programming. This included a broad range of formats: teleplays, serials, and so-called ‘novelas’. It’s important to understand that the term ‘novela’ referred to a time-slot, not to long-form series. For instance, ‘La Novela Colgate’ was a trademark used to present one-off stories, or serials that consisted of just a few episodes–usually written by the same author and represented by a regular cast.
One of the earliest examples of a weekly drama series was ‘Historia de tres hermanas’, written by Mercedes Antón, and produced by CMQ (Cuba, 1955). It was broadcast every Sunday evening for over two years with enormous success.
The first uninterrupted stream of daily telenovelas was inaugurated in Mexico, with the production of ‘Senda Prohibida’ (1958), which aired from Monday to Friday, at 6:30 pm, under the sponsorship of Colgate Palmolive. Starring Silvia Derbez, it was the story of a young woman that arrives in Mexico City and seduces a married man. The experiment was successful and led to the industrial production of serialized ‘romantic’ fiction–an uninterrupted production stream that continues today.
A love story, and the confrontation between good and evil, the wealthy and the poor, would be the basic ingredients. The conflict would develop in daily episodes, with a length of several months or years–depending on the rating–, but always providing a closure or resolution.
In the 1960s, daily ‘telenovelas’ were understood as the most profitable way to produce and deliver fiction content. By the end of the decade, other themes and formats had almost disappeared–and telenovelas became the predominant prime-time format across the region.
